Background
The magical Negro is an archetype which was first applied to presidential candidate Obama by movie and culture critic David Ehrenstein, in a Los Angeles Times op ed column of March 19, 2007. According to Ehrenstein, the magical Negro is a non threatening black hero in the popular media, usually the cinema, who was invented to ease feelings of white guilt over slavery and racial injustice. He is noble and devoid of sexual motives, and appears suddenly, out of nowhere, to magically solve the problems of white people.
Ehrenstein opined that "Obama's fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he's written in his two books, or even what he's actually said". Rather, Obama was a popular contender for the presidency because whites were projecting their "fantasies of curative black benevolence" on him.
Limbaugh began discussing Ehrenstein's op ed on the day it was published. He declared that "The term 'Magic Negro' has been thrown into the political presidential race in the mix for 2008" and sang a brief rendition of "Barack the Magic Negro" to the tune of "Puff, the Magic Dragon", anticipating the Shanklin song, which he began to air the following day. He said he would "own" the term by the end of the week. Limbaugh played the song numerous times throughout the 2008 presidential election season.
Read more about this topic: Barack The Magic Negro
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